In between the heavy droning of all the golly-gee philosophy are a bit of decent video and a few scattered facts.

I didn't realize there were so many complete, mature galaxies only 500 million years after the big bang, or that "the" universe is now 40-plus billion light years big, or that galaxies are speeding away at faster than the speed of light. And to think, a few years ago they didn't even know there was a big bang, or that anything could go faster than light. What next, time travel?

I suppose one could assume that the awe that the narrator expressed so often is due to the immenseness of the universe and its contents, but then again, since all of that was condensed down to essentially nothing at time zero, that awe may have the same weight as awe at a video game, since the reality of one compared to the other is merely an interpretation, or a perspective. The universe as a hologram, if you will.

One of the things that really bothered 20th century astrophysicists concerning the big bang was the religious implication of everything being created out of nothing. So whether it's fear of that, or awe at this "big picture", I say enjoy the show - we'll get a different view (and a new philosophy) next year.

If you click on the "index" tab, you can find some images that are huge; the largest (Carina nebula) is a gorgeous TIFF over a gigabyte in size. I couldn't resist; I printed it on an HP Z3100 at about 24x68" and have it on my wall now. It's mind-blowing.